At Shurochka Azarova's from the famous film by E. Ryazanov « Hussar ballad» was real prototype- one of the first female officers in Russian army, hero of the War of 1812 Nadezhda Durova. Only this ballad should have been called not a hussar ballad, but a “ullan” ballad, and in the fate of this woman everything turned out much less romantic.

Nadezhda was an unwanted child: her mother wanted a boy, and subsequently could not love her daughter. One day she threw a girl out of a carriage window simply because she was screaming and crying so much. After this, the father, who commanded a squadron in the hussar regiment, took the child from the mother and gave her to the care of the nurse and his orderly. Therefore, from childhood she learned to ride a horse and swing a saber. “The saddle was my first cradle, and the horse, weapons and regimental music were my first children’s toys and amusements,” Nadezhda admitted. Her father gave her a Cossack uniform and a Circassian horse, Alcidas, with whom she never parted.

At the age of 18, she was forcibly married to a 25-year-old official, with whom she was never happy. Wanting to find freedom, Nadezhda ran away from home with a Cossack captain. She left her clothes on the river bank so that her relatives would think she had drowned, and she changed into a man’s uniform and left with the Cossack regiment.

She later explained her difficult decision as follows: “Perhaps I would have finally forgotten my hussar habits and become an ordinary girl, like everyone else, if my mother had not imagined the fate of a woman in the most bleak form. She spoke to me in the most offensive terms about the fate of this sex: a woman, in her opinion, should be born, live and die in slavery; that she is full of weaknesses, devoid of all perfections and incapable of anything! I decided, even if it cost me my life, to separate myself from this sex, which, as I thought, was under the curse of God.”

Nadezhda Durova entered the Uhlan regiment as a private under the name of Alexander Sokolov. Perhaps the decisive factor in choosing a place of service was that the lancers did not wear beards. Along with men, the girl took part in battles, amazing everyone with her desperation and courage. Once she carried a wounded officer from the battlefield, for which she was presented with the St. George Cross and the rank of non-commissioned officer.

Perhaps the secret of the cavalry maiden would never have been revealed, but one day Nadezhda wrote a letter to her father, where she asked for forgiveness for escaping and asked for help. The father forwarded the letter to his brother in St. Petersburg, and he handed it over to the military chancellery with a request to return the cavalry girl home.

Alexander I, amazed by this story, approved the woman’s desire to serve her country and allowed her to remain in the active army. Nadezhda was transferred to the Mariupol Hussar Regiment with the rank of second lieutenant, under the name of Alexander Alexandrov. After 3 years, Nadezhda was forced to transfer from there to the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment. Among the reasons, two versions are named. According to one of them, the woman was forced to move because the daughter of the regiment commander fell in love with her. Not knowing the hussar’s secret, the colonel was very dissatisfied that Alexander Alexandrov was dragging his feet with his marriage proposal. The second version sounds much more prosaic: the life of a hussar was beyond Durova’s means.

As part of the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment, Durova took part in battles during the Patriotic War with Napoleon. In the Battle of Borodino, Nadezhda was shell-shocked in the leg by a cannon ball, but remained in the ranks - she was afraid to turn to doctors to avoid exposure. Then, with the rank of lieutenant, she was appointed adjutant to Kutuzov himself. Durova took part in the battles during the liberation of Germany, distinguishing herself during the capture of Hamburg.

In 1816, Nadezhda Durova retired with the rank of captain. She lived in St. Petersburg for 5 years, doing literary work, and then moved to Yelabuga. In 1840, her works were published in 4 volumes. She told about her adventures in her memoirs, which A. Pushkin published under the title “Notes of a Cavalry Maiden,” revealing her secret. But until the end of her days, she wore men's clothes, smoked a pipe and demanded to be called Alexander Alexandrov.

Women served not only in the Russian army:

It is little known, but the legendary “cavalry maiden”, the first Russian female officer Nadezhda Durova lived for a long time in the Vyatka province. It is believed that Nadezhda Durova served as the prototype for Shurochka Azarova, the heroine of Alexander Gladkov’s play “A Long Time Ago” and Eldar Ryazanov’s film “The Hussar Ballad”. However, Durova’s biography itself is amazing and dramatic. Her unique story is vividly described in the curious memoir “Notes of a Cavalry Maiden.”

N. A. Durova, 1837. Drawing by V. I. Gau

Nadezhda Andreevna Durova was born on September 17, 1783. The mother, who passionately wanted to have a son, with early years didn't like her daughter. One day, when one-year-old Nadezhda was crying for a long time in the carriage, her mother snatched her from the nanny’s hands and threw her out the window. Naturally, such a tragic moment left a deep mark on Nadezhda’s consciousness. From an early age, she hated the traditional fate and lifestyle of Russian women. Here is what Durova wrote in “Notes” about this: “Mother told me: a woman must be born, live and die in slavery, eternal bondage, painful dependence and all kinds of oppression are her lot from cradle to grave, she is full of weaknesses, deprived of all perfections and incapable of anything. In a word, a woman - the most unfortunate, the most insignificant and despicable creation in the world... I decided to separate myself from the sex, which, as I thought, was under the curse of God.” Further, Durova writes that she would like to “exit the sphere assigned by nature and customs to the female sex”.

No sooner said than done. In 1806, Durova ran away from home at night and followed the regiment, dressing in a Cossack dress. For a long time she pretended to be Alexander Vasilyevich Sokolov, the son of a landowner, and later began to call herself Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov. The regiment was surprised that the nobleman wore a Cossack uniform, but for some reason they believed her stories. Despite the fact that Cossack life was difficult, Durova was in a constant state of carefree joy; she liked to spend time with the Cossacks in training and campaigns. In “Notes” she seems to be addressing her peers, young girls: “Freedom, the precious gift of heaven, has finally become my destiny forever! You, my young peers, you alone understand my admiration! I jump for joy, imagining that in my entire life I will never hear the words “You, girl, sit down. It’s indecent for you to go for a walk alone!” “Alas, how many beautiful and clear days began and ended, which I could only look at through the window with tear-stained eyes.”.

N. A. Durova

Durova, in the image of Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov, took part in the battles of Gutshadt, Heilsberg, Friedland, and showed courage everywhere. For saving a wounded officer in the midst of a battle, she was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross and promoted to non-commissioned officer. Amazingly, while participating in battles, she never shed someone else’s blood. During the Patriotic War, Durova commanded a half-squadron, took part in the battles near Smolensk, defended the Semenov flushes at Borodino, where she was shell-shocked in the leg by a cannonball, and went to Sarapul for treatment. Later she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and served as an orderly under Kutuzov.

Judging by Durova’s “Notes”, during the entire time that she served and fought, no one exposed her, everyone around her thought that she was a man. Of course, it’s hard for us to believe this: after all, long military campaigns are part of everyday life, soldiers spend endless time together, and it’s difficult to hide something from each other. Therefore, most likely, Durova is disingenuous. Critics have generally established that there are many inconsistencies in the Notes. For example, Durova somehow managed to reduce her age. Durova’s memories are also interesting from a psychological point of view. A woman who had been posing as a man for a long time finally became completely confused. It is known that Durova was very irritated when she was called something other than Alexander Andreevich, and preferred not to return to her natural nature too often.

Provincial Sarapul, Vyatka province. Beginning of the 20th century

In this regard, the episode of her acquaintance with A.S. Pushkin is characteristic. Durova met him through her brother Vasily. One day he sent Pushkin his sister’s memoirs (she began to write them out of boredom), and the poet appreciated the originality of these notes. During personal meeting Pushkin openly laughed at Durova, as she was constantly confused whether to speak on behalf of a man or a woman. This is how this episode is described in the Notes: “My dear guest was noticeably confused every time when I, telling something related to me, said: “I was, I came, I went, I saw.”<…>Finally, Pushkin hastened to end both the visit and the conversation, which was beginning to become extremely difficult for him.” Then a completely embarrassing moment occurred: “Pushkin, finishing his speech, kissed my hand. I hastily snatched it, blushed and I don’t even know why I said: “Oh, my God! I’ve been unaccustomed to this for so long!” After this episode, close contacts with Pushkin ceased; Durova believed that the poet began to mock her in the family and society. It is interesting that for most of her life after leaving the army, Durova continued to be a man in her own image, therefore, as we see, she completely forgot how to be feminine.

With all this (it is not entirely clear how), Durova had both a marriage (unsuccessful) and a son, who, by the way, was born on the territory of the Vyatka province, baptized in the Ascension Cathedral in the city of Sarapul. But Durova had a strained relationship with her son. One day he sent his mother a letter asking for her blessing for the marriage. Seeing the address “mama,” she, without reading it, threw the letter into the fire in terrible anger. And only after her son sent a letter with a request to Alexander Andreevich, Durova wrote: “I bless you.”

Nadezhda Andreevna Durova(married - Chernova) - “Cavalry Maiden” (the first woman to become an officer in the Russian army) participated in the Patriotic War of 1812, served as an orderly for Kutuzov.

She was born in Kyiv (according to other sources - in Kherson) on September 17, 1783 (and not in 1789 or 1790, which is usually indicated by her biographers, based on her “Notes”. She reduced her age, since the Cossacks, where she served , was supposed to wear a beard and she had to pass herself off as a 14-year-old boy). Durova was born from the marriage of the hussar captain Durov with the daughter of the Little Russian landowner Alexandrovich (one of the richest gentlemen of Little Russia), who married him against the will of her parents. The mother, who passionately wanted to have a son, hated her daughter and one day, when Nadezhda, at the age of one year, was crying for a long time in the carriage, she snatched her from the nanny’s hands and threw her out the window. The bloody baby was picked up by the hussars. After this, the father gave Nadezhda to be raised by the hussar Astakhov. "Saddle, - says Durova, - was my first cradle; horse, weapons and regimental music were the first children's toys and amusements".

Until the age of 16, when her father became a mayor in Sarapul, she grew up in the conditions of the camp life of a hussar squadron and received a home (meager) education. At the age of 18 she was married to the assessor Vasily Stepanovich Chernov, but in 1804, leaving her husband and child, she returned to her father. In 1806, she ran away from home, falling in love with a Cossack captain and changing into a Cossack dress. For some time Durova lived with her esaul under the guise of an orderly. But after a while she left him too.

Since Cossacks were required to wear beards and sooner or later she would have been exposed, in 1807 she reached the Konnopolsky Uhlan cavalry regiment (where they did not wear beards) and asked to serve, calling herself Alexander Vasilyevich Sokolov, the son of a landowner. The regiment was surprised that the nobleman was wearing a Cossack uniform, but, believing her stories, they enrolled her in the regiment as a comrade (a rank of private of noble origin). She took part in the Prussian campaign, and for saving a wounded officer in the midst of a battle, she was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross and promoted to non-commissioned officer.

Nadezhda Durova was in Tilsit when the Peace of Tilsit was signed, and there she fell in love with Alexander I. Her letter to her father, written before the battle, in which she asked for forgiveness for the pain caused, gave her away. An uncle who lived in the capital showed this letter to a general he knew, and soon rumors about the cavalry girl reached Alexander I. The father, using all his connections, found his daughter and demanded that she be returned to parents' house. She was deprived of weapons and freedom of movement in the regiment and was sent with an escort to St. Petersburg, where she was immediately received by Alexander I.

The Emperor, struck by the woman’s selfless desire to serve the Motherland in the military field, allowed her to remain in the army. And so that her relatives could no longer find her, he transferred her to the Mariupol Hussar Regiment with the rank of second lieutenant under the name of Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov, derived from his own, and allowed her to contact him personally with further requests. But soon Nadezhda had to transfer from the hussars again to the lancers (to the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment), since the commander of the Mariupol Hussar Regiment was very dissatisfied that second lieutenant Alexander Andreevich would not propose to his daughter, who was madly in love with him. Soon after this, Durova went to Sarapul to visit her father, lived there for more than two years, but at the beginning of 1811 she returned to her regiment.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, she commanded a half-squadron and served as an orderly for Kutuzov, who knew who she was. She took part in the battles of Smolensk and the Kolotsky monastery, and at Borodino she defended the Semyonov flushes, where she was shell-shocked in the leg by a cannonball, after which she left for treatment in Sarapul. Later she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In May 1813, she again appeared in the active army and took part in the war for the liberation of Germany, distinguishing herself during the blockade of the Modlin fortress and the capture of the city of Hamburg.

In 1816, yielding to her father’s requests, Nadezhda Durova retired with a pension with the rank of captain. She always went to men's suit, she signed all letters with the surname Alexandrov, she got angry when they addressed her as a woman. Durova's son, Ivan Vasilyevich Chernov, was assigned to study at the Imperial Military Orphanage, from where he was released with the rank of 14th grade at the age of 16 for health reasons. One day he sent his mother a letter asking for her blessing for the marriage. Seeing the address “mama,” she threw the letter into the fire without reading it. And only after her son sent a letter with a request to Alexander Andreevich, she wrote “blessings.”

For some time Durova lived in Sarapul, where her brother Vasily held the position of mayor. One day Vasily brought A.S. Pushkin to his delight "naive cynicism" and for several days Pushkin could not stop talking to him, and in the end (after losing at cards) he took him from the Caucasus to Moscow. Soon Vasily Durov sent Pushkin the memoirs of his sister (from longing without his beloved military service It was then that Nadezhda Durova began to write for the first time) and Pushkin, appreciating the originality of these “Notes,” published them in his Sovremennik (1836, No. 2).

Pushkin became deeply interested in Durova’s personality, wrote rave reviews about her on the pages of his magazine and encouraged her to further her writing activities. In the autumn of the same 1836, revised and expanded “Notes” appeared under the title “Cavalryman-Maiden. Incident in Russia,” and then an “Addition” to them was published. Nazhezhda Durova's memoirs were a great success, prompting her to write stories and novels. Since 1838, she began to publish her works in Sovremennik, Library for Reading, Otechestvennye Zapiski and other magazines; then they appeared separately (“Gudishki”, “Tales and Stories”, “Angle”, “Treasure”).

In just three years - from 1837 to 1840 - Durova published nine stories, an addition to “The Cavalry Maiden” and the Gothic novel “Hooters”. Almost all works in these years were republished twice, many of them “hot on the heels” were analyzed by V.G. Belinsky. But his rejection of Durova’s passion for mystical themes undoubtedly played a certain fatal role in the termination of Nadezhda Durova’s so successfully launched and fruitfully developing writing activity.

Published in 1837-1840, the stories: “The Game of Fate, or Illicit Love,” “A Year of Life in St. Petersburg, or the Disadvantages of the Third Visit,” “Sulfur Spring,” “Count Mauritius,” “Pavilion” - were republished in the twentieth century. The novel “Gudishki”, the stories “Treasure”, “Nurmeka”, the sketches “Two words from the everyday dictionary” still exist only in the author’s lifetime editions. In 1840, Nadezhda Durova (under the pseudonym Alexandrov) published three stories with some mystical “crazy stuff”: “Treasure”, “Angle”, “Yarchuk, the Spirit Seer Dog”, which did not cause delight among the reading public, so after 1841 Durova did not published. “Yarchuk” was republished in the collection “Fantastic Stories” (Izhevsk, 1991). The story “The Sulfur Key” was republished in the anthology “Russian Mystical Prose” (2004).

In recent years, Nadezhda Durova lived in Yelabuga, in a small house, completely alone, except for her four-legged friends. But these were no longer combat horses, but dogs or cats. Love for animals has always been in the Durov family. Probably, the famous trainers, people's artists Vladimir Leonidovich and Anatoly Leonidovich Durov inherited it from their famous great-grandmother. All the residents of Yelabuga knew the aging warrior woman and went to her for advice, with requests and needs. She took an active part in each person and interceded for everyone. If the matter depended on the mayor, she addressed notes to him; if it was necessary to turn to the tsar himself, she wrote petitions “to the highest name.”

Nadezhda Andreevna died on March 21 (April 2), 1866 at the age of 82, and was buried at the Trinity Cemetery. She bequeathed the funeral service for herself as the servant of God Alexander, but the priest to violate church rules didn't. At burial she was given military honors.

Unlike the romantic heroine of the film “The Hussar Ballad,” the real cavalry maiden Nadezhda Durova did not live such a rosy life, and her fate was absolutely not a woman’s. But she chose this fate for herself.

Staff Captain Alexandrov

When the valet’s voice was heard in social salons: “Staff captain Alexander Alexandrov,” people in the hall began to sarcastically whisper: “The same one, hussar Durova.”
The slender officer with the St. George Cross on his chest was surrounded on all sides. Questions rained down one after another. The light could be understood - for the first time he saw a female officer, a participant in many battles, including Borodinsky.
But high society soon cooled down on the poor noblewoman, concluding that she was just an “ill-mannered fool.” On the second day they barely greeted her, on the third they didn’t even offer to sit down. One of her contemporaries nevertheless did not forget to leave a portrait of the heroine in 1812 in her diary: “She was of average height, thin, with an earth-colored face, pockmarked and wrinkled skin. The face shape is long, the features are ugly. His hair was cut short and combed like a man's. Her manners were masculine: she sat on the sofa, rested one hand on her knee, and with the other she held a long chibouk and smoked.”

Nomadic childhood

Durova's mother, Nadezhda Ivanovna, secretly married the hussar Andrei Vasilyevich Durov, for which the parents cursed their child. In 1783, the Durovs had a daughter, whom her mother immediately disliked. Once, during the transition of the regiment where her husband served, Nadezhda Ivanovna, exhausted by the screams of her child, threw her daughter out of the carriage window. From hitting the ground, little Nadyusha started bleeding from her mouth and nose. But the girl turned out to be strong and remained alive. After this incident, Andrei Vasilyevich entrusted all the care of his daughter to one of the hussars of his squadron.
Soon two more children were born into the family. Durov was forced to resign. He settled in Sarapul, where he received the position of mayor. Having settled in her own home, Nadezhda Ivanovna tried to love her first-born. She didn't succeed. Nadya did not want to do needlework or housework at all. The girl marched a lot, learned to climb trees and roofs, shoot a pistol, handle a saber, and ride a horse. In her adolescence, she made a decision, which she later wrote about in her memoirs: “I decided, even if it cost me my life, to separate myself from the sex that, as I thought, was under the curse of God.”

Failed marriage and elopement

However, her parents still saw her as a girl and decided to marry her off. They passed off Chernov as a Sarapul official. Two years later, the couple had a son, Ivan. But family life didn't stick. Chernov drank a lot and made scandals. Nadezhda left him, leaving her son to her husband. It is curious that Nadezhda Andreevna never mentioned this page of her biography in her memoirs.
Returning home, Nadezhda saw everything the same: her mother’s boredom and anger. Durova decides to run away from home. On her own name day, September 17, 1806, she waited until nightfall and circumcised long braid, leaves his woman's attire on the river bank, puts on a Cossack uniform, jumps on Alcides's frisky horse and catches up with the Cossack regiment, which was recently in the city. She called herself Suvorov's namesake: Alexander Vasilyevich, whose last name was Sokolov.
At that time, Russia helped its allies in the war with Napoleon. Squadrons were formed in Grodno. Alexander Sokolov was assigned to the Konnopol Uhlan Regiment. Military science was easy for the newly minted uhlan. We can say that the “maiden Durova” was a born military man. She learned to shoot without missing at all, wielded a pike and cut with a saber better than many of her fellow soldiers. And only the heavy boots tormented her: they constrained her movements, physically exhausted her.

In war as in war

Twenty-three-year-old Alexander Sokolov entered the first battle in East Prussia near the city of Gutstadt. The cavalry maiden rushed across the battlefield as if her Alcides had wings. She was not afraid of bullets, sabers, or cannonballs. At the same time, she saved the wounded Lieutenant Panin by giving him her horse, while she herself remained on foot. After the battle, the commander of the Konnopolsky regiment, Major Kakhovsky, made a suggestion to Ulan Sokolov: they say, you cannot risk your life so recklessly. However, he introduced Alexander to George.
Did the regiment realize that a woman was fighting next to them? Denis Davydov, already recalling the campaign of 1812, spoke in his notes about the following episode: “I happened one day at a rest stop to enter a hut together with an officer of the same regiment in which Alexandrov served, namely Volkov. We wanted to drink milk in the hut. There we found a young Uhlan officer, who had just seen me, stood up, bowed, took his shako and went out. Volkov told me: “This is Alexandrov, who, they say, is a woman.” I rushed to the porch, but he was already galloping far away.”
Apparently, they guessed about the strange masquerade much earlier. But they treated this phenomenon according to the laws of noble honor and military brotherhood. However, the rumor that a woman was serving in his army reached the sovereign. Alexander I ordered to find Sokolov and send him to St. Petersburg.
The meeting of the emperor with the brave uhlan took place. What arguments Durova gave in her defense is unknown, but certainly not tears (as in the film “The Hussar Ballad”): such behavior was not in her character. In short. Alexander left a cavalry maiden to serve in the army. He personally handed her the St. George Cross and said: “From now on you will be called in honor of me - Alexandrov.” This is how Nadezhda Durova found her third name: Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov. She was awarded the rank of lieutenant.
Lieutenant Alexandrov met the year 1812 in the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment. During one of the campaigns, a horse galloping in the next row hit Alexander in the leg with its hoof. The leg was swollen and blackened. The cavalry girl refused to go to the infirmary. Here, heroism was probably mixed with the fear that the secret would definitely be revealed. History is silent about how Durova cured her leg.
Together with the Lithuanian regiment, the protégé of Alexander I experienced all the bitterness and severity of the retreat in the Patriotic War of 1812. The most terrible physical tests were insomnia and thirst. Lancers often fell asleep in their saddles and fell off their horses. Then many began to follow the example of Lieutenant Alexandrov, who, in order not to fall asleep, walked next to the horse. The wells along the road were dry. They drank warm greenish water from the bottom of the ditches. So they reached Smolensk, where the French first learned about real Russian strength. And yet, having suffered heavy losses, Napoleon marched on Moscow.
Durova also took part in the legendary Battle of Borodino. The Lithuanian regiment stood in the hottest sector, and Alexandrov, as always, was in the center of the battle. He was shell-shocked. Again he refused to go to the infirmary. And only after the battle, Field Marshal Kutuzov himself ordered to go home for treatment. But the lieutenant still managed to fight outside Russia, finishing off French army.
Then Alexandrov resigned. Out of boredom, Nadezhda Durova began writing memoirs. Pushkin spoke with delight about the Notes and published them in the Sovremennik magazine. Thus, Nadezhda Andreevna became not only the first female officer, but also the first Russian female writer.
Until the end of her life she signed male name. I never wore a woman’s dress, I always wore a military uniform. She was buried there according to military rites in 1866.

Magazine: Mysteries of the 20th Century No. 51, December 2007
Category: Women who surprised their contemporaries

Nadezhda Durova's biography of the Russian cavalrywoman is outlined below.

Nadezhda Durova short biography

Nadezhda Andreevna Durova was born in Kyiv in 1783 in the family of a Russian army officer. Since childhood, she was fond of toys and games for boys: her first toy was a pistol, later a saber. She also loved archery and climbing trees. The mother was horrified by her daughter’s hobbies and tried to raise Nadya as a noblewoman, teaching her to read and write and handicrafts.

To escape from her mother, Durova, at the age of 18, marries Vasily Chernov. But family life did not work out and soon she returned to her parents. Son Ivan remained to live with his father.

In 1806, Nadezhda Andreevna ran away from her parents' house. Dressed in a Cossack uniform, the woman reached the Cossack unit. She introduced herself to the commander as Alexander Durov. She was not accepted into the regiment, but they promised to take her to Grodno, where an army was being actively formed for a campaign against the French emperor, Napoleon. Alexander Durov was enrolled in the Polish cavalry regiment. The service was difficult: cursing of commanders, difficult exercises, soldier’s life. But she liked serving as a soldier in the Russian army.

Soon the Polish Horse Regiment was sent to fight the French. Nadezhda Andreevna took part in the battle of Fridlan and the battle of Heilsberg. In May 1807, a skirmish occurred between French and Russian troops near the city of Gutstadt. Durova showed courage and bravery, saving officer Panin from death.

Soon, when the military learned that Durova was a woman, she was taken to the capital Russian Empire. Alexander I personally wished to meet with the courageous woman. Alexander I presented her with the Cross of St. George, marveling at her courage and bravery. The emperor ordered that Nadezhda Andreevna be transferred to the Mariupol regiment and even allowed her to introduce herself by her last name in honor of the emperor - Alexandrov.

With the beginning Patriotic War in 1812, she was awarded the rank of second lieutenant of the Uhlan regiment. She took part in the battles of Mir, Smolensk, Dashkovka, and on the Borodino field. During the Battle of Borodino she was wounded, but she did not leave the ranks. In September 1812, Nadezhda Durova was reassigned to Kutuzov’s headquarters. The woman was constantly worried about her injuries, and she has been undergoing treatment for six months in home. At the end of her vacation, she and her regiment participate in campaigns of the Russian army abroad.